Crimson Dawn
by Nether Lord Hades
Summary: A zombie apocalypse set in Malaysia...what will happen to five Singaporean Sec 3 (10th grade) students? Will they survive? Warning: Contains Singlish and rated T for some coarse language.


**Hey guys, Hades here bringing you the first chapter of my new story, Crimson Dawn...Without further ado here it is...**

Just the common flu. That's all they said it was at first.

Just a regular virus, maybe a new hybrid mutant strain of rabies and ebola, and that's exactly what everyone dismissed it to be, nothing out of the ordinary, just another virus.

I mean, what else could it be? The doctors didn't know either. They had never seen anything like it before. And they sure couldn't explain it. To be honest I never really gave this much thought anyway, given that I was caught up in all the assignments not to mention almost 5 stacks of homework every night for each subject, me and my friends being in sec 3 and all.

Anyway, the worst that ever happened here was the SARS outbreak 14 years ago.

Like I said, I hadn't paid much attention to it until the Apocalypse started and all hell broke loose.

It was simple enough, you got infected like normal but then you died all of a sudden within just minutes of being infected.

Yet, no one mentioned the part where you came back.

Now the Undead are roaming the streets, Turning normal humans into one of Them, mindless creatures that have no control whatsoever over themselves other than to feed on the flesh of the living...

Malaysia, 6/12/14, 3:30PM...

"Whoa, this is so cool!" My friend, Ben Yick runs out in front of me. I don't know why, it's only the twin towers of Penang and it's a mile away.

"Come on lah, it's not that cool," I say, shaking my head. Even though the way the twin towers tops off the nighttime skyline of Penang is neat, it's not amazing.

Even the Eiffel Tower seems more interesting than this.

I fail to see what's so special about it, most of us have been here before. There's really nothing for him to be excited about.

"Ben, I don't see what's so special about the Towers lah. We've all seen it before." My friend Pui Leng Choon is the one who made that statement. I look at her.

"You think we should follow him or not?" I ask.

PL shakes her head. "No, there's no point lah. We all know Bem can be a idiot sometimes."

"Agreed." I smirk.

Pui Leng laughs. "Should we wait for Ben to stop staring at the Towers or not?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." I say.

"I'll kick Ben's ass if he doesn't hurry up lah." PL jokes.

The only reason we're in Malaysia is because of a Sec 3 excursion. The excursion was quite expensive. Ben and I managed to earn enough money to come, while Pui Leng was able to front the money outright.

PL and I start walking towards a bench nearby and sit, tired of waiting for Ben. We're not even supposed to be on the streets this late, at least I don't think so.

"I wonder how someone can be so stupid leh," I comment.

"What do you mean lah?" PL asks.

"Ben, he's the definition of stupid." I tried not laugh as I said this.

Pui Leng smirks. "Ya, sometimes I just don't how he can be such an idiot!"

Ben suddenly returns.

"Guys! Guys!" he basically shouts.

"What is it leh?" I ask.

"Ben, what happened leh?" PL questions.

"Just..." He tries to catch his breath. "Come with... me."

He runs off in the direction he came.

"Should we go after him or not?" PL asks.

I nod. "Ya, might as well leh."

We start after Ben.

"Wah lau," Pui Leng complains. "Why do we have to run?"

"Ben's the one who should be complaining about running, not you," I retort, well aware of Pui Leng's rigours training in martial arts.

Granted, she was someone not to be messed with unless you wanted to end up in hospital with broken bones.

We suddenly bump into Ben outside what appears to be an electronics store.

I note the big flat screen TV my friends were all looking at.

For some reason, there was a breaking news report on.

"Attempts to reach the centres of disease about how to combat this new mutant strain of rabies known as LQP-79 have been fruitless so far and the World Health Organisation fear it's already become a pandemic." The newscaster was saying.

"What the hell is she talking about?" I ask.

"Ya, what is it?" Pui Leng seconds my question.

"Just keep watching lah," Ben says.

"We now go live with Nathan Ng from our sister station in Singapore. How's it look out there, Nathan?"

The camera switches to show a reporter in the Singapore CBD.

"From the looks of things here, the zombies haven't been as big of a problem here. The Singapore Armed Forces seem to have the situation under control..."

The reporter's voice blanks from my mind. Zombies? Did he just say zombies?

I turn to my friends. "Guys, did he just say-"

"Zombies?" Ben finishes.

Pui Leng and Ben just nod.

What? I've joked before about a zombie apocalypse, but I don't recall actually wanting to be caught in the middle of one.

"They don't mean actual zombies, do they?" I ask, but my friends ignore me, their eyes glued to the screen.

In background, behind the reporter, I could just make out the distinctive uniforms of Singapore's millitary patrolling the streets for the apparent undead, armed with semi-automatic N60 assault rifles. A Leopard 2SG tank drives in the background, a soldier manning the turret.

All of us are silent.

"Wah lau, they are serious leh." PL mutters, her gaze transfixed to the screen showing one of the Undead pouncing upon and ripping a solder to shreds before he could even scream or open fire.

The solider, now one of the zombies, got up and started attacking nearby people.

"You guys saw that or not?" PL asks in disbelief.

"Ya, he Turned in less then five seconds!" Ben exclaimed.

The picture shifts again to show the woman newscaster from before in the Malaysian station.

"Several other counties aren't faring as well as Singapore. Bangkok is under widespread siege. The Thailand Armed Forces is currently attempting to evacuate survivors which may prove difficult."

A short video clip of the chaos in Bangkok is shown. People run like lunatics away from something, which I assume are the zombies.

"Malaysia is fairly safe as well. Beijing is in a similar state, but Shanghai it is completely engulfed in chaos."

Another video clip rolls, this time showing buildings in Shanghai on fire. Then another video cuts in and shows several city blocks in a huge inferno.

"Oh shit, that's bad lah." Ben says.

"They're kidding right?" PL asks.

The three of us were speechless. We kept watching the news report in silence.

"Numerous cities across the globe are also in various stages of distress. Australia has maintained order, while Xian has gone up in flames much like Shanghai..."

"We've just been told that Moscow has gone silent.

There are also reports of widespread looting in Paris and Rome..."

"What should we do?" PL asks.

"First, we need weapons to fend off the zombies," I tell my friends, pointing out the obvious.

"We can go to the restaurant opposite, it's still open." Ben says.

I open my mouth to protest, but PL cuts me off. "Good idea lah, maybe the people in there know what's going on." She turns, stating to walk towards the restaurant. Ben and I follow.

That's actually not as stupid as I first thought. Regardless, I don't think the zombies are here in Malaysia yet.

"This is crazy, right?" I say, but no one answers. There's a loud shriek and I look to my left to see the other two, but they're frozen in place, facing my right. "Guys, what wrong?"

Ben is the one to respond as he raises a shaking finger. I look to where he's pointing and my eyes widen too.

A Malaysian Armed Forces Humvee is speeding down the street, running over a couple pedestrians along the way. People start screaming.

"What the hell are they doing?" I murmur.

"That can't be legal leh," PL observes.

The Humvee is still mowing down people on the streets, and here we are, standing like dumbasses in its path.

"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" PL shouts, pulling Ben and I off the sidewalk. It seems Ben already has the same idea and grabs my shirt while we're on the road.

It's total chaos. People are flying, literally and not literally, trying to get out of the way. A body that was tossed up in the air by the Humvee slides right in front of us. It's mangled and bloody.

Resisting the urge to throw up at the gory sight, I turn to my friends.

"Guys, where are we going?"

"Go where I suggested, the restaurant!" Ben yells.

The three of us dash across the street, several people smacking into us. There's a man on the ground, wailing in pain. He seems to have broken his ankle, but I can't grab him. Someone else runs on the man, smashing his face into the road.

I feel a tug on my sleeve and I feel the urge to throw up. I look up and the Humvee is right in front of me.

The vehicle's lights temporarily blind me, causing my eyes to shut, and I can feel myself flying and my back slamming onto the ground. Was I just hit?

I open my eyes, seeing Ben and Pui Leng run over.

"You okay or not?" PL asks, worry written all over her face.

"I feel like my head was just ran over by a truck!" I complain.

"You just were!" Ben laughs, but was silenced by an icy glare from Pui Leng.

I turn my head to see the Humvee smash into a street lamp, the engine smoking. Military vehicles shouldn't be that prone to damage so easily...Wow, this is crazy. I just saw twenty, maybe more people just get killed.

"Ryan!"

I turn back around, Ben being the source of my name. I scramble to my feet. Something's tugging at me though. I turn towards the Humvee.

There's something wrong with that Humvee, especially if it just started mowing down civilians. We're not North Korea, so it's weird. I don't think the government would've been given orders to kill fellow civilians, especially those who aren't infected.

I don't know why I'm walking towards the military vehicle now, I really don't.

"Ryan!" Ben yells. I hold up my hand as I keep walking. People bump into me as they scatter about, trying to get to safety.

"What on earth is he doing lah?" I hear PL ask.

"I need to know what caused these guys to drive like it was GTA," I call to my friends.

I reach the side of the Humvee, propped up on the bent street lamp. This thing really managed to do some damage.

Blood soaked the windows, making it hard to see inside, maybe I should check the front

Standing on the front driver's side tire, I peer into the windshield. I see a smashed up face behind some more blood.

"Ryan, come on lah," PL shouts, barely audible above the commotion. "Get over here!"

I ignore her and peer deeper into the vehicle. Its occupants are dead, it seems. If there's one thing I know about zombies, it's that you need to kill them by destroying the brain. A viable killing tool is a gun or some other weapon, and the Malaysian Armed Forces have weapons, so...

I hop off of the tire and walk to the door, my hand shaking as I raise it to the handle. I grip the handle and pull.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" my friends shout.

The driver's body rolls out of the seat, mangled and surreally decomposed. I think I'm gonna throw up.

A torrent of partially-digested food and bile forces its way out of my throat. The vomit covers the dead man's face.

I hear countless rapid footsteps as I try to catch my breath after throwing up all over the dead army officer's body.

"Wah lau leh!" I hear PL say, she places a hand on my back. "What were you thinking lah?"

"Weapons, we need weapons."

"Why lah? No good survival story starts with the survivors having weapons. Besides, the military'll have it all under control soon leh." Ben pipes up.

I shrug him off. "Doubt it lah,"

"Ya Ben, this isn't a horror movie, this a real apocalypse leh." PL waves her other hand in his face dismissively.

I step over the corpse and peer into the car's interior. Blood cakes the seats, the windows, the man in the passenger seat still moving.

Wait, he's moving! But he's just smacking his face on the window, groaning. The dome light is illuminating his face, which is disgustingly gray. Is this guy a zombie?

He seems oblivious to me, so I decide against bringing attention to myself. Even if I did, the noise outside should keep him distracted until I find what I want. I look around the front, but there's nothing of interest. I back up and shut the door, coming face to face with Ben.

"Let's go," he says, taking my arm.

"We will once we get weapons, be patient lah." I yank my arm away and open the back door.

The overhead light comes on again and the back is not as bloody as the front, thankfully. Where would they put the weapons in a military Humvee? I swear it's in the back.

There's one! What is it, an N60 assault rifle? I don't care. I grab the part of the gun that's visible and yank it out. There's a magazine inserted, Good thing it didn't accidentally fire.

I back out with the N60 in hand and look to my left. The dead solider is still lying there, military vest and all. They usually have magazines in their vests, don't they?

"What are you going to do with that?" Ben asks.

"I'm going to shoot you if you don't shut up." I joke.

He immediately shuts up.

I bend down next to the Malaysian Serviceman, setting the N60 down next to me. I rummage through his vest, and sure enough, he has some magazines. Four, to be exact. Better than nothing.

I then grab around his thigh, where other weapons normally are. I touch metal, grab hold, and pull, pulling out a combat knife with a standard six millimetre blade and a trench spike which I give it to PL who slips them onto her hands, the seven-inch steel spikes in between her fingers gleaming in the sun.

I keep the knife in my pocket.

I then feel around the fallen soldier's body again, retrieving a M9 machine gun with five spare magazines. I stand up, shoving the N60 mags into my pockets and grabbing my N60 by the carrying handle.

"Here," I hold the M9 out to Ben.

He hesitates. "Ryan, this is wrong lah."

I slide the machine gun and its ammo into my free pocket. "Then don't complain when some zombie is eating your flesh for dinner."

Ben smiles despite the situation, holding out his hand. "Give me the gun lah."

I grin, glad that he gets my point. Sliding the gun out of my pocket, I hand it to him, grip first.

He takes the gun from me and flicks off the safety, aiming it near me.

"What are you doing leh?" I ask. Why is he aiming at me of all people?

"Look behind you lah," he says.

I turn my head to see what he's talking about. Surely it can't be anything...

"Ughhhh..."

What the hell?! The body, it's moving! And it's grabbed my leg! But how? Unless...

I grip the N60's carrying handle tight and use my free hand to hold the rifle's grip. Using all of the force I can, I raise the gun up into the air and bring the butt down on the puke covered skull. A sickening thud ensues, brain matter and skull fragments mixing in with the partially-digested food.

"Freaking zombie," I mutter as I hand Ben the five M9 magazines still in my possession.

He takes them and shoves them into his pocket, wiping away the vomit.

We make our way towards the restaurant, Ben's M9 lazily hanging by his side, my N60 in my hand and PL at the ready with her new trench spikes.

I sling the carrying strap over my right shoulder, that way the rifle hangs by my right hand.

I look behind us to see some guy have the same idea I did. He opens the door and a zombie lunges at him from behind, grabbing hold and feasting on him. That poor guy getting his face eaten off, I don't wish that on anybody. Now I wish I shot it.

We duck into the restaurant. Ben quickly closes the door behind us and we walk to the diner. There are several people nervously sitting at tables scattered around the bar. I notice Catherine Li and Matt Tay from the school excursion are sitting at a booth in the far corner. They see the three of us walking towards them and Catherine waves at us.

"Where did you get those?" Matt calls out, confused.

"MAF Humvee crashed outside," I say.

"You stole from the military?" He asks incredulously.

"It wasn't stealing, it's called trying to survive." Ben says, a stupid grin plastered across his face.

"Especially not when the solders we got these from are undead," I add.

"Zombie Servicemen?" Catherine asks.

Ben and I nod.

"I thought everything was fine mah?" She says.

"Just a couple soldiers," I say. "I don't think it's that bad." I then pull the combat knife from my pocket and hand it to her, knowing that she was deadly with one as she did Eskrima, a sort of martial art using knives.

"Oh ya, sure." Matt walks to one of the many windows in the dimly lit restaurant and looks out the window. "Shit..."

"What is it leh?" PL asks, curious.

"Take a look for yourselves lah."

The four of us walk to the window and look out.

The sight is horrific. In the two minutes or so since PL, Ben and I came inside, the streets have gone from a site of chaos to a gruesome dinner hall. Zombies sprinted around the streets. Some people are too stupid to run, thinking instead that shouting would help.

I hate clichés like that. They're zombies, people. Just run.

There's a young woman who knocked a zombie off of some dude, likely her boyfriend or someone close, and she's caressing him. He inches up and takes a chunk out of her jugular. I turn away to avoid seeing the blood spray and cover my ears to try to block out her screams. The other people in the restaurant look at the window, concerned.

I slide the N60 off of my shoulder and grab the carrying handle. These people could use help.

I pull the rifle up and grab the grip, but Matt stops me.

"Save your ammo lah," Matt tells me.

"Why? I've got a hundred and twenty rounds! One headshot each and I could clear this street!"

Matt just sighs. "Unless you want to attract a even bigger horde with that noise, go ahead lah. I won't stop you,"

I glare at Matt, even though I know he's right. It's just unnecessary attention...

Matt closes the window curtains. "Sir," He waves a nearby waiter over. "Turn on the TV, see what is going on can or not?"

The waiter nods and fumbles with a remote, clumsily pushing the power button. No matter the channel, news reports will be on. Sure enough, they are.

"There are reports from Japan regarding the outbreak there as well, more than one thousand have been victimised or reported missing in Tokyo so far. " The newscaster's hair looks frayed. This is seriously something if even the news teams are getting this stressed.

"The governor has called for a-"

A gunshot rings out, causing the reporter to look to her right. The cameraman moves the camera's angle to face where the shots came from. A Japanese ambulance has its back open, ready to load two body bags in. The body bags start to rise, and another shot is fired, going through one of the body bags. A third shot is then fired, going through the other bag.

"The military have started to open fire! I don't know what's going on, but-"

The reporter is cut off by screaming and the camera falls on the ground. God knows what happened there. One thousand dead or undead in a Japanese community alone... the entire cities of Shanghai and Xian in flames...

"...Cuba, Havana is lost and the people are revolting in the streets..."

"What are we going to do leh?" Matt asks, slumping down next to me.

"Dunno lah," I say.

Catherine goes back to the window and looks out it again, slightly raising the curtain.

"What's happening lah?" Ben asks.

"Of course nothing good leh," came the reply. "It's slowly decreasing, but slowly getting worse at the same time and a couple zombies are surrounding the restaurant." She backs up. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Poor Catherine, she must've seen someone get eaten.

"A siege," Matt spoke up from behind me.

"I'm getting something to drink," Catherine announces. "You guys want anything or not?"

"Water," Ben says.

"Coke," Matt said.

"Green tea," PL replies.

"You leh?" Catherine looks at me.

"Don't worry about me, I might get something later myself." I tell her.

"We need a plan," Matt says as Catherine leaves to get the drinks.

"Agreed." I say.

"Getting the shit out of here would be good lah," Ben says.

I sigh and the rest of my friends just ignore him knowing it was impossible with the amount of zombies just outside the door.

My gaze drifts back up to the TV. Japan, Thailand, France, Italy and Russia each lost a major city. Russia lost its capital, as did Italy and France. Australia maintained order, so that should be reassuring, right?

"Ryan, you're looking as if you're taking responsibility for something, you okay or not?" Matt's voice breaks my thoughts.

I shrug and rub my eyes. "No, just thinking." The N60 is tiring my arm, so I pull it up and set it on the counter.

Just then, Catherine gets back and hands out the drinks.

She then sits back down next to me, sipping on her own drink through the straw as she did so.

I glance at Ben and notice that he's sipping on his water but not talking. This was kind of disturbing, but I think Ben's just in shock. It doesn't surprise me, really as he has always been pretty timd.

Now that I think about it, he's paler than usual.

"You okay or not?" I ask him.

He looks at me, his eyes fearful behind his black metal glasses, "I'm okay lah," he responds.

I knew he was trying not to worry any of us so I didn't push it.

"You guys want me to go out and clear those zombies?" Catherine questioned.

I knew just how skilled she was with a knife but we couldn't risk it.

"It's too risky leh." I say.

"And what lah? Stay in here and kena get screwed while we can actually do something about it?" Ben says.

Catherine suddenly gets up, knife in hand, her face set hard.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Getting us out of here lah," she replies

"Don't be so stupid can or not, you'll get killed!" I protest.

"Don't worry lah, I'll be fine." She walks to the door and briefly peers outside before flinging open the door.

The zombies catch her scent almost immediately, closing in on her position just outside the door.

A zombie lunged at her, it's jaws open revealing bloodied fangs and jagged broken teeth.

Catherine gritted her teeth before driving her knife straight though it's skull and destroying the brain, the zombie crumpled before her, now dead for good.

She then turned, stabbing another zombie though the eye, gore and infected brain matter splattering all over her clothes and hair.

As more surrounded her, Catherine started swinging at the zombies.

She spun around and stabbed a zombie that got too close, her knife going right though its head followed by whipping around and skilfully skewering another zombie's brain, making it smash into a wall, both undead comrades died alongside each other.

She raised her knife again, continuously swinging at random zombies. She quickly turned around, killing those that were behind her, getting a few more with another swing as well.

She continued to spin around in a circle, her knife was a deadly blur of sliver that spelled death for any zombie that came into contact with it, the blade piercing their skulls and tearing though their brains. After a few minutes of repeating, there were only one zombie left, and I could tell she was exhausted from all the killing.

She leant down to catch her breath, her back turned, oblivious to the last remaining zombie which tackled her to the floor from behind.

I thought Catherine was as good as dead, but she stopped the zombie from biting her by grabbing its jaw and dislocating it with impressive strength.

She then threw it off before plunging her knife into its head, splattering a whole bunch of brain matter, blood and some other unidentifiable disgusting fluid onto the concrete pavement.

Catherine came back in, shutting the door behind her, the other diners looking at her in awe.

A guy who couldn't be much more than a year older than us was staring at her like a pervert but quickly looked away as Catherine shot a death glare in his direction.

She sat back down next to PL, pulling out a comb from her bag and running it though her long black hair, attempting to get as much blood out of it as possible while she sipped on her ice lemon tea.

"What now leh?" Matt questioned.

"We should get supplies and find somewhere to stay for the night lah." Ben says.

"My grandparents have a house around here, we could stay at there," I point out.

Catherine nodded, "Good lah, but what about supplies leh?"

"We can go to the shopping mall near here for supplies, there's a Cold Storage and NTUC in there we can go to for food." I tell my friends.

"So what should we do now lah? Go to your house first or go to the shopping mall?" Pui Leng asks.

"Not sure leh...what do you guys think?" I question.

"We should go check out the shops and get supplies first, makes more sense right?" Catherine says from across the table.

She then rummages in her bag for a while before pulling out a notepad and pen, writing something on it then sliding it across the table to me.

"Uh, I can't read your writing..." I tell her, squinting at the words on the page.

"What lah? is my writing really that bad?" She questions.

"Ya, you got doctor's handwriting mah." Matt laughs, peering over my shoulder.

"I just wrote down what we need to get when we visit the shopping mall later lah," Catherine said. "Basic stuff like advanced first aid kits, clothes and extra food plus bottled water."

"Are we going now or not?" Matt asks as he shoulders his bag.

"Ya, I suppose..." I say, grabbing my N60 by the handle and slinging it over my shoulder.

Without another word, the five of us stand up and head out the double glass doors.

We didn't talk much on the way there, we all had many thoughts and personal worries swirling around in our heads and we also didn't want to attract any more attention than needed from the zombies. A couple hordes came at us but they fell before Catherine's knife and PL's trench spikes rather quickly.

We walked through the bloodstained hallway of the mall to find the Cold Storage grocery store. As we entered through the only manual push door, I saw the scale of the store for real now. I knew it was huge and this place was a haven. There was everything you could dream of in the long aisles.

"I have something I want to ask you leh." Catherine tells me.

"Go ahead lah." I invited.

"You got that gun from a dead Serviceman, correct or not?" She asked, worried.

"Ya, why?"

"Can you tell me what he looked like? My dad's a Serviceman in the Singapore Army who had to serve here in Malaysia for some reason. I just want to be sure lah."

"He was fairly short, middle aged, had short spiky hair and a beard." I described, remembering the zombie I had seen in the Humvee.

Catherine sighed with relief. I wish I could have known that same relief. I didn't know if my mum and sister were okay as they had gone to one of my sister's school fencing competition overseas while my dad was currently serving in the Army fighting against the zombies like most other Singaporean men, leaving me to take care of myself.

We continued getting supplies in the store for a while longer.

I talked to Catherine a little more while everyone finished getting what they needed.

"Clothes store now right?" I asked as we headed out of the grocery store.

The girls nodded and skipped ahead, leaving Ben, Matt and myself behind pushing the cart full of supplies.

We entered the clothing store. It was a huge place with two floors and a ton of changing rooms. Everyone looked at Matt for what to do next. He sighed and looked to me.

"Matt, stay here with our supplies." I say.

"PL and Catherine, you two check the bottom floor changing rooms then move on to the main part of the bottom floor, Ben and I will look upstairs." I coordinated. Ben and I ran up the broken escalator.

I grabbed a mannequin and swung at one of Them wandering up there. I could hear fighting downstairs, but no screaming, which I took as a positive sign that the girls were doing fine by themselves. The zombie I was fighting fell and I smashed its head with the base of the mannequin.

I nearly slipped on some blood, but caught my balance and swung at another one. The mannequin broke and bits of plastic embedded themselves in the one I was trying to kill. The force didn't knock it over. Now I was weaponless, other than my N60 which I didn't want to use.

Luckily, Ben came to me and smashed it's skull repeatedly with his pistol until it crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

We were clear upstairs.

We then quickly ran back down to check on Matt and the girls, in time to see Catherine skilfully finish one of Them off as it approached Pui Leng who had her back to the approaching zombie.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"Ya. That's it." Catherine said, as she wiped the blood from her knife before sheathing it.

The men's department was on the upper floor. Matt, Ben and I rushed upstairs again.

I grabbed two pairs of jeans, a single red polo shirt when I wanted to put some effort into my appearance, some comfortable-looking sleepwear and five T-shirts with designs I liked. I'd also taken several pairs of comfortable socks, some multipacks of fresh underwear and some shoes for practical purposes. One pair of shoes for comfort when walking day-to-day, and a pair of boots for hiking. I had also taken three hoodies, one black and one dark blue and one dark green.

PL had found and taken a second shopping cart for all of the clothes we would inevitably end up with, but we couldn't take it up the broken escalator.

The other guys came back wearing new stuff. Matt was wearing a plain black T-shirt and some dark blue jeans. Ben was wearing a blue T-shirt and beige shorts. He'd also found a new pair of glasses and a pair of prescription sunglasses that looked pretty cool. They were struggling with the clothes they weren't wearing as they had more then I did. We then walked back down the escalator.

"Are you girls ready or not?" I called down.

"Nearly lah! We're in the change rooms, wait and we'll show you guys what we got." Pui Leng called.

I found a shopping cart, getting Matt and Ben to dump their new clothes in along with mine.

Catherine came out first. She wore a white t-shirt and a dark blue skirt that looked similar to our school uniform for the girls. It was open on one side, which gave her mobility.

Pui Leng then revealed herself. Her fringe had been swept across her forehead instead of coming down the middle of her face now. She was wearing a red top and a pleated black skirt. She looked stunning. I just about fell over at the sight of her.

"Wow...You both look amazing." I said.

Ben started to get a nosebleed while Matt nodded, speechless.

"Enough drooling, let's go lah." Catherine said. I shook myself conscious and tried not to look at her too much. She noticed and smiled at me. We put the rest of the clothes in carrier bags and put them in the cart.

As we walked towards the exit, my eyes fell upon a weapons store. I ran in.

"Just a minute guys! I'll catch up!" I called.

I looked around before spotting a double headed battle axe, I grabbed it off the wall and strapped it to my back. I then hastily grabbed a sniper rifle with extra ammo for Matt before running to catch up with the others.

I tossed the rifle and ammo to Matt who caught the box of spare ammo and the rifle grip first, strapping it around his left shoulder.

"We need a place to rest for the night lah, we won't make it to your house before nightfall for sure." Catherine says to me, glancing at the setting sun.

"We could go back to our hotel." I suggest.

"How far is it leh?" Matt questioned.

"About ten minutes." I reply, starting to walk in the hotel's general direction.

"Sounds good lah, let's go." Matt nods at me.

We exit the mall and start moving, checking around corners and keeping alert. Better be safe than sorry.

The alleyway was empty, thankfully. We continued out into the streets and I take note of the immense number of zombies on the streets. There's so many... What's odd, though, is how they're not paying attention to us. We've walked past a couple and they haven't tried attacking us.

We make it in front of a store with music playing outside. I think it used to be a music store or something, the zombies are crowded underneath the speakers.

"What's going on leh?" I whisper to Matt.

"If Left4Dead logic applies here, the zombies are only attracted to sound leh." He whispers

We continue walking. I'm shocked that we've made it this far without an incident.

SQUECH!

I take that back. I look to my side in time to see Pui Leng impale a walking corpse that seems to have gotten too close.

Nonetheless, we carry on.

After a few minutes of walking, I break the well-settled silence. "Almost there guys," I point down the street to a tall building. "There's the hotel."

"Finally!" Ben says, a little too loudly.

I shush Ben. "We're almost there lah, shut up can or not?"

Ben smiles cheekily, raising his hands in mock fear and we carry on. I slash a couple zombies in the back of the head with my new axe as we creep to the hotel.

"Here it is!" I exclaimed as we approached the hotel.

"Finally, we can leave this stuff for a while lah." Matt muttered.

We left the carts outside, unable to take them through the rotating door but took their contents inside, beginning to put the bags onto a comfy looking leather couch. When the carts were empty, I swept the place quickly with the girls. The reception itself was fairly large. It looked totally clear, but I wanted to check just in case some of Them had gotten inside or something.

"It's clear, but we should check upstairs!" I called out to the others.

They nodded, picking up our bags of supplies and we headed for the lifts.

The bloodied elevator doors open smoothly. There weren't any zombies directly in front of the doors, since they're all spread out.

Blood stains the once-lavish carpeting in the lobby. There are some dead bodies on the floor, likely zombies that were killed before their assailants themselves joined the ranks of the undead.

I point to Ben, PL and Matt, then to a horde at the opposite end of the lobby. I then make a throat-slit motion. Ben, PL and Matt nod, going off to do their job.

I motion Catherine to follow me and we sneak up on the zombies crowded around a door nearby. The other zombies don't seem to notice us but they're looking right at us. I think they're probably blind or something.

I make the elimination motion again after pointing to the group. Catherine nods and raises her combat knife. I do the same with my axe, gripping the handle with both hands.

Catherine brings her knife down, splitting a skull open like a water balloon. I swing my battle axe with as much force as possible, the heavy blade going right through into the back of a zombie's skull. A small amount of brain matter sprays out, splattering on my T-shirt. A few of the still 'alive' zombies start to turn around.

I glance at Matt to see him struggle with a zombie. What the hell is he doing? Ben has a bit of blood on him, suggesting he killed at least one, but Matt... Seriously?

BAM!

Dammit, he shot! Matt, couldn't you have just hit that thing?

"Alright then, time to get this party started!" I say, pulling out my N60 with my other hand. I flick off the safety and shoulder the rifle, aiming at the horde in front of me. I line up the shot, trying to get as many in the sight as I can.

I squeeze the trigger for a second, firing a couple rounds. Wow, this recoil is strong.

The spent casings lightly thud on the carpet, as do six zombies. Catherine stabs another zombie in the head, caving it's skull in before jumping and backflipping over another zombie, her knife piercing the the thing's head from behind as she comes down. The zombie crumples, now dead for good.

A few more shots are fired from Matt's rifle.

I grip my axe in my hand before bringing the double-headed blade down on the walking corpse's head. Through the axe, I feel the skull break and some mushy resistance, immediately feeling the zombie go lifeless beneath me as I pull the blade out again.

Catherine seems to be making short work of those zombies.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

"Stop shooting can or not!" I shout, turning back towards Matt. There's a small pile of dead zombies and Ben in a corner, his shirt and face covered in blood and brain matter.

"And let them kill Ben?" Matt asks, aiming the sniper rifle at another member of the undead. "No way lah!"

He pulls the trigger again, causing another zombie to fall. His aim doesn't seem precise, probably since he hasn't used a real gun before, until now.

The hotel's 1st floor has become a slaughterhouse. There aren't that many zombies left, five from what I've counted. Blood is everywhere, even on the ceiling. I do not want to know how it got up there.

I watch as Pui Leng spin kicks a zombie, her foot connecting hard with the thing's head, sending it to the ground before plunging her trench spike through it's skull.

Another glances around and it seems I was right. Four are still standing, but they won't be for much longer.

I grip the N60's handle with my right hand again, switch the fire selector to semi-auto, and take aim at a lone zombie in the far corner.

I suddenly have a idea. "Hey dead-heads!" The zombies all look at me, now I have their attention.

"What are you waiting for? Shoot lah!" Matt yells.

"Shut up and check on Ben!"

My attention returns to the undead. There's something I want to try, so I start to walk backwards. They need to get lined up for it to work.

It's basic physics, I guess. I know that if you fire a projectile and it goes through a target, it will keep going for a while and possibly penetrate another target. Line up four targets in a close row and maybe the bullet will go through them all.

At least the zombies' bodies seem to be structurally weaker so it might work.

The four all move their heads in roughly the same direction and my finger pulls the trigger.

The bullet leaves the barrel of the rifle and punches through two of the skulls, leaving the other two standing. I quickly pull the trigger again, taking down the remaining undead.

I turn around, satisfied by the carnage that we caused, and look at Ben. He looks pale. Pui Leng seems to be taking care of him, but I haven't got a idea what's wrong.

Catherine and I hurry to the opposite side, where Ben, PL and Matt are.

"What's wrong with him?" I ask, flicking the safety on, then slinging the assault rifle over my shoulder.

"I don't know leh," Matt says. "He wasn't bitten, but..."

"Maybe he's just in shock lah," Catherine hypothesises.

I look at her, eyebrows raised.

"What do you mean lah?" PL questions.

"Remember what happened last week in school or not? Ben threw up while we were dissecting that frog in science!" Catherine reminds us.

"Ya," I say. "Even when we were watching that documentary about animal births last term, he covered his eyes and totally freaked out remember?"

"How can I forget lah?" Pui Leng laughs.

The elevator to our left suddenly opens and I shoulder the N60. Inside are two people, Jeremy Lim and Rachel Lee from our class, blood covers their clothes, some of it spattered on their faces.

The elevator's light is flickering and there seems to be blood inside of the lift as well.

I lower the rifle upon recognising them.

"Are you guys bit or not?" I ask.

Rachel is shaking, probably from shock of me pointing my rifle at her earlier. "N-no..."

I look at Jeremy, who's shaking his head.

"Were you guys on the seventeenth floor or not?" Matt asks,

Jeremy nods, coming out of the lift. "Ya, why?"

"Just checking," I nod.

Rachel follows Jeremy, but she's limping. My eyes lock on to her right leg, which is bleeding. She has a small chunk of flesh ripped out of her calf.

"She's infected!" I shout.

Matt grabs my shoulder. "Wah lau! What are you doing leh? We find more survivors and you label one as infected?"

Rachel spins around. "I'm not-" She coughs, blood pooling on the floor.

She stumbles and coughs more.

Jeremy turns around and grabs her before she can fall on her butt.

"Don't worry," he says, trying reassure her. "You'll be fine leh."

I unsling the rifle and pull it up. "Get away lah! She's been bit!"

"No!" Jeremy insists. "She cut her leg while we were running!"

"A cut doesn't take out a chunk of flesh!" I reason.

Matt holds his arm up as I step forward. "Wait leh."

"For what lah? For her to reanimate and bite him?"

"He may be telling the truth lah. We should listen." He insists.

I push Matt's arm away and shoulder the rifle.

Rachel's gone limp, so that's not good. She's already dead.

If I can put a bullet in her head before she reanimates, maybe it'll still work, but Jeremy is still caressing her body.

"Move out of the way lah!" I shout at Jeremy.

"She's going to be fine!" he shouts back. "Look lah, she's getting up!"

I swear and start running forward, the rifle still shouldered. It's uncomfortable to run while aiming a rifle. "She's reanimated!"

Zombie Rachel rears her head back. This is my chance. My finger pulls the trigger once more. The muzzle flashes and the bullet flies to meet its target.

She bites him on the arm, causing him to cry out, just before the bullet impales itself into her head.

"Shit! It hurts!" Jeremy yells, looking toward his dead undead friend. "Wah lau! She's dead! You son of a bitch!"

"Obviously," I walked up to Jeremy. "You should've just said she was bit."

"But..." he groans, pain likely pulsating from the bite. "You would've just shot her!"

"And I ended up doing that lah! If you said something, you wouldn't be about to die too!"

"B-but, I don't want to die! She didn't want to either!" Tears are streaming down his face now.

PL walks up next to me and gently puts her hand on my shoulder. "You're being a bit too blunt lah."

"I'm just stating the facts, he needs to know." I say

No one says anything, silence looming all around us.

"Look, your death's inevitable." I lean down next to Jeremy. "I can let you suffer and turn, or end it now."

"There has to be some other way lah!" He must have a thick skull.

"There's no other way." I state

"You're a fucking prick, go and die lah!" Jeremy shouts, spitting in my face.

Catherine gives Jeremy one of her icy death glares, stepping forward and drawing her combat knife.

"Face it lah! You are kena screwed!" She continues glaring.

Jeremy's eyes just stay wide. He doesn't say anything.

"So I'm pretty much dead?" he finally asks.

"About time you understood lah. I promise you, you'll die a man, but I have one question." I stand back up, that way I can shoot when the time comes.

"What's your question lah?" He coughs some more.

"Is anyone still alive on the seventeenth floor? Anyone else from our group?"

"Group?"

"The Sec 3 trip."

Jeremy shakes his head and coughs again, this time throwing up blood as well.

"Everyone's dead?" I ask.

"Can't be lah." Catherine mutters, she was shaking her head in disbelief.

"Rachel and I... We were the only ones to make it to... the lifts..." His breathing is becoming more labored. He's probably in agony.

"Don't talk lah, just stay still."

I raise the N60's barrel to his head, using only one hand.

"What are you doing leh?" Jeremy asks.

"Stopping you from losing your humanity." I answer.

I pull the trigger, the bullet busting through his skull. Blood sprays like it did when I euthanised Rachel less than a couple minutes ago.

It was silent for a couple minutes, the five of us just standing there, Jeremy's and Rachel's corpses at my feet.

"What do we do now lah?" Matt asks finally.

"We need to shower while we can leh." Catherine suggested.

PL nodded in agreement.

The girls then proceeded to rush around the floor trying to find a unlocked room. When they found a couple, they walked into two of them and shut the doors.

"Let's check for ammo and stuff lah." Matt suggested.

"There's probably some in here." I guessed, walking to one of the other unlocked rooms and opening the door.

We entered the room. The room was relevantly small, with a table, chair, mini fridge, a bed, a closet, flat screen TV and bathroom.

"Found it!" I heard Ben exclaim after a while of searching.

I turned to see him and Matt crouched by the cabinet under the TV, full of movies and games on one side and on the other, a lot of ammunition, three silencers and a rifle sight. Ben passed me one of the silencers. I slid it onto my N60 and it fitted perfectly.

"This one might work with your sniper rifle." Ben passed Matt one of the other two, then slotted the last one and the sight onto his own rifle.

Matt took out his rifle and tried to fit it.

"Seems tight leh, but it might work. We won't know until we try it." He said.

"Did you receive any training with guns? You seem to know quite a lot leh." I say.

"Ya, I went to a military camp to take a firearms course last christmas holidays and was trained by a ex-SAF commander, no kidding one." Ben spoke as he started to load bullets into his gun.

"Whoa, remind me not to get on your bad side." Matt joked.

"How did all this stuff get here anyway? It's definitely illegal." I say.

"People probably smuggled it here lah." Ben guessed.

He then proceeded to sort through the boxes of ammunition.

He set two piles, both fairly large. I looked at the largest pile.

"Can our guns take this ammo or not?" I asked.

"No lah, doesn't look like it'll fit. Too small leh." Ben says.

I sighed.

"Still a pretty good find lah." Matt says.

"True." Ben nods.

Ben then averted his attention to the movies.

"Too bad the zombies are attracted to sound lah. If not we could have had a good night." He said.

"Ya, it was always fun to get you guys over, play some Team Fortress 2 and watch movies." I agreed.

"Aiyah, we can still have fun lah." Matt said, getting up and searching through one of the shopping bags we had brought up with us. He came back into the room with three bottles of soft drinks, biscuits and plastic cups.

Ben looked at him, surprised.

"Ryan's right lah. We need to have some fun sometimes." Matt said.

Matt unscrewed one and poured some into each cup. We then clinked the cups together and drank.

"Whoa, this is good." I said.

I took another sip, feeling satisfied. I was usually so stressed with homework, revision and assessments since I had entered Sec 3 at the start of this year before everything wet to hell; it felt nice to let all that stress go for a while.

There was a knock on the door before Pui Leng's voice was heard from behind the door, "Can we come in or not?"

"Sure lah, come in." I say.

At this, Catherine pushed open the door and the girls walked in, PL closing the door behind her.

"What are you guys doing leh?" Catherine asked.

"We're relaxing, got a problem with that or not?" Ben jokes, biting into a biscuit then sipping at his soft drink again.

I could tell he was really enjoying himself.

The girls were all wearing looser, more comfortable clothes for sleeping. Catherine had her wet hair loose but her fringe clipped up out of her eyes and was wearing a baggy T-shirt with knee-length pyjama shorts, which showed her lean athletic form quite well, while Pui Leng wore a looser-fitting long sleeved silk shirt with matching silk long pants, wearing her long black hair in a loose ponytail.

"You guys should go shower lah." Catherine suggests, flopping herself onto the bed.

"Alright then, I'll go first." I say heading for the bathroom, stopping only to collect a pair of my new clothes before walking into the bathroom and locking the door.

Turning on the shower, I strip down to nothing and step in.

Wow, that felt good. I step out of the shower, drying myself off before pulling on a fresh set of sleepwear then walking back out into the actual room.

Catherine was now sitting at the table cleaning her knife with a cloth she had found, and looked up when I came out.

"PL, Ben and Matt leh?" I ask.

"Matt is outside on the balcony, PL is in her room and Ben is showering in my room toilet since you took so long lah." She sheaths her knife.

"Thanks." I say, heading to the balcony.

"Whoa, this is crazy leh," Matt hands me the pair of binoculars he had found, having had enough. "Take a look for yourself lah."

I lift the binoculars to my eyes and focus on the ground where a mass of people had gathered.

It appeared some kind of riot, or protest the citizens were starting to stop the use of a so called 'Killing Pandemic'.

"Don't tolerate the tyranny of the military! We strongly condemn this biological weapon, this circulation of a 'Killing Pandemic' developed by our government and the US!" The protesters were so loud we could hear them from up here.

"Killing Pandemic?" I questioned.

"I think they're talking about the zombies lah." Matt replied.

I was surprised by this. "Are they serious?! What biological weapon? They know that no science can explain why dead corpses reanimate and walk around eating people!"

"Stupid right?" Catherine stood in the doorway, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Very. They are going to get themselves killed with the amount of noise they're making!" I say, lowering the binoculars.

"Not our problem lah," Matt stated. "We'll just do what we need to do to survive and try not go insane."

I hand the binoculars to Catherine, having had enough myself and walk back into the room.

Sitting down on the bed, I could only think of what had happened over the past few hours, unable to forget how everything went from normal to hell on earth.

A light knock on the door snaps me out of my thoughts.

"Come in lah," I say.

The door opens, PL and Ben letting themselves in before Pui Leng quietly shuts the door.

PL takes one look at me, before crossing the room and sitting on the bed next to me.

"You okay or not?" She breaks the firmly settled science.

"Ya, I'm fine." I say, not wanting to worry her.

The balcony door slides open as Catherine and Matt step into the room, the binoculars still held in Catherine's hand.

"How?" I asked.

"Getting worse leh," Catherine replies.

"What happened?" PL questions, worried.

"People protesting outside about the zombies, saying they are a biological weapon, a killing pandemic lah." Matt says.

"Wah lau! Are they stupid?!" Pui Leng almost yells.

"Probably leh," Catherine briefly smiles before turning serious again. "It's not our problem so I won't bother too much lah."

"Anyway, we can't do anything even if we wanted to help." I reason.

"True lah..." Ben mutters.

"What time now leh?" PL wanted to know.

"10:00." I reply, glancing at my watch.

"Okay lah, I'm going to bed." Catherine starts for the door but is stopped by me.

"Do we need a barricade to block Them or not?" I ask.

"Don't need lah." Catherine states.

"Okay, goodnight then." I say.

"Goodnight lah, see you guys tomorrow." She and PL give me one smile each before walking out of my room and splitting off into their respective rooms down the hall.

"I think I should go too lah," Matt says, heading out the open door. "Con on Ben." Ben and Matt walk out of my room, the door clicking closed behind them.

Sighing, I flick off the lights before getting into bed, letting myself slip into the dark oblivion of sleep.

I woke up as sunlight began to seep into my room. I walked across the room into the bathroom, taking some clean clothes with me. I entered the shower, finding the cold water refreshing.

After about ten minutes I got out, dried myself and got dressed, starting to brush my teeth with a toothbrush and cup I had found sitting on the counter top.

The least we could do is keep hygienic.

I spit out the toothpaste in my mouth and pick up the cup of water. Swishing some water around in my mouth, I spit that out too. I can't imagine what it'd be like without toothpaste. I hold the toothbrush under the tap and rinse it off before walking out of the bathroom and grabbing my N60.

Slipping on my shoes, I head out to the lobby.

Ben, Matt and the girls were already waiting when I got there. Like me, they were all wearing a new set of fresh clothes and had their weapons with them.

"What now leh?" Pui Leng questions.

"We go up to the seventeenth floor and look for survivors lah." Matt proposes.

"But Jeremy said no one made it mah." Catherine reminded us.

"Who knows leh, there might still be people in the rooms," Ben hypothesised.

"Ya, it's worth a try, come on lah." I press the up button hearing the lift ding before the doors opened and we stepped in.

Blood and dead bodies greeted us as we stepped out onto the seventeenth floor.

Zombies, that I guessed once were our teachers and classmates milled about in the hall, unaware of our presence.

I unsling my rifle and start firing in an arc, mowing down four zombies. I aim for three heads individually and pull the trigger three times.

Shit, this place is a mess just like the 1st floor. Brain matter, skull fragments and blood are everywhere.

Taking a look around the hall, it seems that it's actually less bloody than the 1st floor lobby.

Is that an arm? There's a dismembered arm on the floor and I hope Ben doesn't see it or he'll freak out.

I motion for my friends to follow me.

We continue forward, checking the two hallways that are divided by a sort of fork. One seems clear, but the other has blood on the farthest wall that I can see.

"Ben and PL, stay here with Matt. Catherine, you're with me."

They nod and slide their weapons out. Ben and Matt flick the safety off their rifles.

I start heading down the 'not clear' hall, Catherine right behind me.

The hallway ends in a little common area. The lights aren't flickering, giving us a clear view of what we're up against: dead, dead, and more dead. Some are looking right at us, but they're making no moves to get us.

The groups surrounding the outdoor speakers come to mind, giving me an idea.

I motion for Catherine to move back down the hall a little. She shrugs, as if to ask why, but I start walking, regardless. She follows.

"What are you planning lah?" She asks quietly when we get back far enough.

"I'm going to try something, hold on leh."

I need something to throw, something like...That arm. That arm can be thrown. It's not the most practical or hygienic thing, but it's my only choice right now.

I run back to the arm, nod to Matt, grab it, and dash back to Catherine. It's revolting, picking up the limb of a human being. It's just so gross...

"That's disgusting lah!" Catherine makes a face as I pass her.

"Do you have a better idea?" I look back to see her shake her head.

I creep up to the room with all the walking corpses once more, weighing the arm, which is actually a forearm and hand. I should be much more disgusted, I really should.

The open room has several doorways and goes on for about fifteen meters. Maybe ten. Measurements have never been my thing. The zombies seem to be concentrated mainly around the doorway second-closest to me, so I'll lob this piece of meat at the doorway farthest from me.

I weigh the forearm in my hand once more preparing to throw it. I've got to make sure I don't smack a zombie with this and hit near the doorway.

I aim the makeshift decoy at the doorway and toss, putting a reasonable amount of force into the throw. I watch the piece of human meat soar above the zombies's heads and landing with a smack on the wall next to the doorway.

I don't know what's going to happen. Hopefully I'm right.

The zombies all turn to face the source of the meaty thud and some start running towards it.

Well, they're all in a crowd, so I guess I could start firing bullets into their heads.

I start pulling the trigger, basically shooting blindly into the zombie mass. A couple zombies drop dead on the other side, Catherine was making short work of Them, slicing off their heads and limbs, her knife killing anything it touched.

Within about ten seconds, all of the zombies are either in a pile in front of the doorway or severed limbs scattered about on the floor.

The door next to the pile of corpses is spattered with blood and peppered with bullet holes.

"What the hell were you trying to do with that arm leh?" Catherine asks.

I hit the N60's mag release. "Matt told me that the zombies have at least two senses still intact." Thirteen rounds left, not bad.

"And?" Catherine sheaths her knife.

"Smell and hearing." I slide the magazine back into the rifle.

She just nods and we continue going through the rooms. All of the doors are open, meaning all the zombies should've been out here. There may be some left in the rooms, though.

"You check the left side, I'll check the right lah," Catherine says. She had the same idea as me.

She goes off to the right and I walk to the left.

The first room is clear, nothing of interest inside besides an uneaten glazed doughnut on a table.

I pick it up and walk out, progressing to the second room.

This doughnut's pretty good. The second room has some flowers in it and a black suit hanging in the open wardrobe.

I pop into the third room and get a surprising sight. It has a zombie in it, but it's wriggling about on the floor, unable to get up. It's kind of funny, but I contain my laughter.

I walk over to the zombie and raise my foot, curb stomping the zombie's face into next week.

I walk out of that room and turn to the fourth. There's only one more to go after this. Inside is nothing special. Why isn't there anything useful?

I head out of that room, with nothing of use inside and into the last room. Two zombies, male and female, are slowly shuffling towards the door.

I grin and unsheathed my axe, twisting it in my grip. This is going be interesting.

I run towards the zombie on the right, the guy, and swing upwards. The axe's blade pulverises the zombie's gonads, blood and some other liquids spraying out. I retract the axe and bring it down on his head, the heavy blade shattering the skull upon impact.

That was far more disgusting than it was originally.

The female zombie lunges at me, but I sidestep, causing her to fall. I could stomp her skull, but I'd rather use my axe. I swing, decapitating the zombie and sending its skull into the ceiling. A short burst of blood sprays out from the head and starts to pool from the neck.

I walk back out into the hall and bump right into Catherine. At least I don't have to wait or search for her.

"Should we head further down or not?" She asks.

"You go lah, I'll get Matt, PL and Ben up here."

Catherine nods and I walk back down the hall.

"Hey guys," I call when I reach the area in front of the elevator, but none of them are here. "Where are they lah?" I mutter.

I grip the axe again and head down the hallway deigned 'clear' earlier, since Catherine should be fine on her own for a while. I need to find these three.

This hallway is clean, something I like compared to the bloody décor of the lobby and the other hallway. The big room with ten doorways is... Empty. Our rooms are in the next series of rooms down, so maybe they're down there. All of the rooms' doors are open, so I peek into each room as I walk down. Nothing. They must've all went in front of the elevator or in that other open space Catherine and I were in.

I just realized, did I kill any former classmates? I must have. I killed Jeremy and his zombie girlfriend, but I didn't really know him or her. The mass of zombies over in the 'not clear' path had to have had some of my former classmates. Not like it matters, I didn't like most of them anyway. Most of them were dicks. A couple, besides Catherine, Matt, Pui Leng and Ben, were alright.

I'm near the end of these rooms, and I haven't seen anything unusual so far. Open door, closed door, open do-

Closed door? I walk back to it and press my ear up against the door. I think that's sobbing. And footsteps. Rapid footsteps.

Jeremy, you are full of shit. Calling me a prick...

I slowly open the door, trying not to be too loud. I peek inside and see a girl who I don't recognise, about my age cut a zombie clean in half with what appears to be an outwards-facing crescent blade mounted on a hardwood staff with a flat, bell-shaped blade on the other end.

The upper half of the zombie continues to make its way towards her while it's lower half lay dead on the floor.

"Get back lah!" she yells, landing a well-aimed kick to the thing's face. She is sobbing, making me guess the zombie must've been a friend.

Shit, she's cornered herself! I push the door completely open and run at the zombie, axe in the air.

The axe's blade hits the walking corpse on the skull, its skull shatters and it falls lifelessly to the ground.

The girl, still pressed up on the wall, slides down it and sobs. "You-you're not going t-t-to k-kill me, are you?"

I hold out my hand. "As long as you weren't bit, you're staying alive lah."

The girl looks up and nods. She's pretty, lean and athletic.

She grabs my hand and pulls herself up.

"What's your name leh?" I ask.

"I-I'm Hui Qing... Hui Qing Teo.

"I'm Ryan." I lower the battle axe. "Why you were stuck in there with a zombie leh?"

"They're zombies?" She's in disbelief.

"The groaning, shuffling, blood coming from their mouths, and gray skin didn't tell you?" I ask.

She shakes her head and wipes away tears. "I wasn't paying attention lah."

"Don't worry leh. I'm going to go get my friends who went off somewhere. You can follow me if you want."

"Okay, I'll go lah," She replies.

With that, we leave the room and continue down the hall.

"Did you get bit or not?" I ask, needing reassurance. I look at her and her eyes are red from crying.

She shakes her head.

"Why are you here?" I found myself asking.

"My dad," she says, not sounding down at all. "He was here on business from Singapore. He's a lawyer, so he had me stay here. He likely got evacuated by the Army or something lah." She shrugs. "You leh?"

"Me and the others all came here on a yearly excursion, we are also from Singapore." I replied.

"What happened to the rest of your friends leh?"

"They weren't really friends lah. I didn't really know most of them except these three that we are trying to find now and another one." I sigh, lazily swinging the axe. "The others are apparently all dead, unless they went to another floor."

Hui Qing gasps. "That's horrible leh! How aren't you sad?"

Before I could reply, the next series of rooms come up and right in front of a door are Matt, Pui Leng and Ben.

"Hey," I say, not raising my volume.

They look up and their eyes widen. "Ryan!" Their eyes then hover over Hui Qing.

"Idiots." I shake my head at them and walk forward some more.

Hui Qing laughs. At least she's not in shock.

I hear rapid footsteps coming from behind Matt and Ben, looking back to see who it is.

I unsling my N60 quickly, pulling it up to my shoulder. I'm not gonna flick the safety off yet.

The steps get louder and a person appears. That person is Catherine and she's breathing hard, sweating and covered in blood, knife in hand. I re-sling my rifle.

"Ryan, where'd you go leh?" She then notices Hui Qing. "Who's that?"

"A survivor." I walk forward some more and Hui Qing follows. "I found her as I went to get him," I point at Ben, "But he wasn't there. Nor were Matt or PL."

"This side," Catherine points to where she came from, "Is completely clear."

"As is the rest of this floor then." I reply.

"What now leh?" Matt asks.

"We should let Hui Qing to clean up first and get her some clean clothes then see what we should do from there." I glance at her.

"Fine with me lah, this blood is getting itchy anyway." She walks over to the lift and presses the down button.

"Wait leh, I need to get something." Pui Leng sprints back down the hallway and returns a few minutes later with her two hook swords in hand and her sheathed Guandao strapped to her back.

The six of us step inside the now open lift and PL presses the 1st floor button. While we're waiting, I guess I should reload my rifle for later.

I set the N60 down, opening the box of rifle cartridges and taking out six. After picking up the rifle again and sliding the first cartridge in, my hand accidentally pushes the slide, chambering it. Matt anxiously looks on as I load the remaining five cartridges into the gun.

The lift doors open, revealing our carnage from yesterday, blood and brain matter splattered all over the floor and walls like some sort of gruesome abstract art.

"Did you guys do this or not?" Hui Qing wanted to know as we headed to the rooms.

"Ya, why?" I ask.

"Just wondering..." She looks slightly disturbed by the blood.

Beside me, Matt suddenly shouts a warning and before any of us could react, Catherine was suddenly taken to the floor as a zombie pounced on her from behind.

"Shit! Hunter! Hunter! Hunter!" Matt was yelling.

We watched on in horror, unable to do anything as the zombie's razor-sharp claws tore at Catherine's arm, brutally ripping the flesh while she screamed in pain.

I got up, quickly shouldering the N60 and aiming, hitting the safety off before shooting the Hunter twice in the head.

Catherine pushed the now dead zombie off as she struggled to her feet.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Catherine mutters as she attempts to stop the bleeding.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw other zombies running straight towards us, probably attracted by the smell of blood.

"Take Catherine and go, I'll hold the others off lah." PL links her hook swords before unsheathing her Guandao.

"No, we fight together." Catherine objects.

"Don't be so-" PL started.

"I'll fight as long as I can stand lah." Catherine unsheathes her combat knife.

"I'm just worried you'll Turn leh..." PL voices her concern.

"She won't lah." Matt interrupts.

"How you know one?" Pui Leng questions, narrowing her gaze.

"Catherine was scratched not bit lah, common sense." Matt shoulders his rifle as well, aiming it at the incoming horde.

Matt, Ben and I wait for for Them to draw a little closer before pulling the trigger, three separate bullets crunching into three separate skulls.

I quickly unstrap my axe and swing at another zombie, the heavy steel blade shattering bone and destroying the brain.

There are only six zombies left standing, and there isn't as much blood as before. This is shaping up nicely.

A third zombie in sight equals a third zombie re-dead. I swing the axe upwards, the blade smashing into another's jaw. The walking corpse gets sent flying backwards, right into Catherine's knife.

I look at PL and she's doing really well, stabbing the double-sided dagger at the end of the hook sword's hilt into their skulls, using the crescent guard to slash at any undead that got too close and decapitating three in one swing, the second blade a deadly blur of silver, slicing cleanly through their heads like paper, taking out more than Ben, Matt and I combined.

The last zombie turns and runs towards me, but that's not going to happen for long. Just as I raise my axe to splatter it's brain into the ground, the Infected crumples, the end of a chain-whip wrapped securely around it's legs.

I glanced around before locking eyes with Hui Qing. She held her Crescent Moon Staff in one hand and the handle of the chain-whip in the other.

I could only watch as she wielded both weapons with great skill, stabbing downwards at the zombie with the staff, while keeping the Infected immobile with her whip.

The staff's crescent blade comes down on the zombie's neck, instantly beheading it, blood spurting from the severed head and neck, pooling on the carpeted floor.

"Why did you have to kill it? I could've done it lah." I told Hui Qing.

"Must repay the favour mah." Hui Qing states, coiling up the chain-whip before sliding it into her jeans pocket.

Before any of us could say anything else, a voice rings out from around the corner. "Drop your weapons and put your hands up!"

**Ohhh cliffhanger! What will happen to them? Who could that be? Find out in the next chapter! Remember to Rate and Review for more. Until then, bye!**

**-Hades**


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